Police in Canada were forced to call in the bomb squad after a resident put out a live artillery shell, believed to be from the first world war era, with the rubbish.

Resident Danny Vellow stumbled across the two-foot-long ordnance in the Ontario city of London on Tuesday as he was heading to a doctor’s appointment. It had been placed at the end of a driveway next to a bag of rubbish.

“Lo and behold, I almost stepped on the bomb,” he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “I was like, ‘Holy heck, eh?’”

After calling in a bomb squad belonging to the Canadian Forces, police kept watch on the street to ensure that that those passing by wouldn’t accidentally set off the explosive.

Once they arrived, the explosive ordnance disposal officers identified the explosive as a live shell from the first world war era and said it contained 20 to 30 pounds of explosives. They took it to be safely destroyed at a nearby base.

Vellow believed the shell might have been left behind by tenants who had been recently evicted. They were lucky that it hadn’t exploded on them, he noted.

“They were only there for four months,” he said. “I don’t know who they are. Those idiots had that in their house.”